ACCLAIMED thespian Stephen Fry has been blasted by a local MP for swearing and telling crude jokes during the BAFTA awards.

Gerald Kaufman, whose constituency includes Levenshulme and parts of Fallowfield, also criticised the BBC for not toning down Fry's script.

While presenting the annual film awards, Fry, 44, made jokes about rent boys and brothels and ended the show by saying 'as the Archbishop of Canterbury likes to say on these occasions, that's enough tedious w**k from me, lets party'.

The star of Blackadder and Wilde also told the audience, including Dame Judi Dench and Russell Crowe, to 'keep your tongues to yourself'.

Mr Kaufman, chairman of the parliamentary culture and sport select committee, questioned whether Fry's script had been checked before it was broadcast live at 8pm.

He said: "There is just too much of this sort of thing going out before the watershed and it's just not necessary.

"This was a live broadcast and the BBC should have taken steps to make sure they knew what they were broadcasting."

The MP added: "If they did look at his script then they may well have knowingly violated the terms of the watershed and if they didn't check his script you have to ask why not."

Mr Kaufman said the time had come for the BBC to face sanctions - as commercial broadcasters do - if it broke broadcasting guidelines.

The Broadcasting Standards Commission said it would look at the BAFTAs for possible breaches of broadcasting standards.

John Beyer, of pressure group Mediawatch UK agreed with Mr Kaufman.

He said: "This is a show which started at 8pm, when there would have been lots of children watching, and the crude remarks made by Stephen Fry were totally inappropriate for that time."

A spokesperson for the BBC said: "We received a tiny number of complaints considering it was watched by six million viewers, and all of those complaints related to his final remark, which was broadcast well after the 9pm watershed."

The spokesman added that Fry's script was seen before the show but much of it was ad-libbed.